Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms, to start off your work week. I’m pointing you to articles about leadership, strategy, industries, innovation, women and work, and work and learning now and in the future. Highlights include where companies with a long-term view outperform their peers, four ways CEOs can conquer short-termism, the emerging, unpredictable age of AI, data as a service, Time for a new gender-equality playbook, and the history and future of work with futurist Marina Gorbis.

Be sure to look for dots that you can connect.

Note: Some links require you to register or are to publications that have some form of limited paywall.

Thinking about Leadership and Strategy

From Dominic Barton, James Manyika, Tim Koller, Robert Palter, Jonathan Godsall, and Josh Zoffer: Where companies with a long-term view outperform their peers

“Our new Corporate Horizon Index provides systematic evidence that a long-term approach can lead to superior performance for revenue and earnings, investment, market capitalization, and job creation.”

From Dominic Barton, James Manyika, and Sarah Keohane Williamson: Finally, Proof That Managing for the Long Term Pays Off

“Companies deliver superior results when executives manage for long-term value creation and resist pressure from analysts and investors to focus excessively on meeting Wall Street’s quarterly earnings expectations. This has long seemed intuitively true to us. We’ve seen companies such as Unilever, AT&T, and Amazon succeed by sticking resolutely to a long-term view. And yet we have not had the comprehensive data needed to quantify the payoff from managing for the long term — until now.”

From Kate Isaacs, David Langstaff, and Russell Eisenstat: 4 Ways CEOs Can Conquer Short-Termism

“It’s easy to fault CEOs for being too fixated on the short term. However, we believe that most CEOs don’t lack good intent. Rather, they’re missing a practical road map to beat back short-termism and build enduring firms — ones that deliver superior economic returns, make positive contributions to society, and inspire public trust.”

Industries and Analysis

From the Economist: Ralph Lauren and Macy’s tell a similar tale of woe

“Both retailers are struggling with the internet and Amazon’s rise.”

From Stefan Weisenberger: Sewing Digital Transformation into the Fabric of the Textiles Industry

“Thanks to advancements in digital technology, textile companies have the opportunity to achieve Industry 4.0 leadership and deliver automated control over the entire textile fabrication process.”

From John Ewoldt: Kay Frandsen’s consignment furniture store expands while others close

“Selling furniture on consignment has been hit and miss for local retailers. Although the number of resale shops nationwide continues to grow 7 percent annually, according to the National Association of Retail and Thrift Shops, several have closed in the Twin Cities. Kathryn Mak Consignment in Excelsior closed last week, Home At Last in Robbinsdale, Mary O’Neal in Excelsior, Mainstreet in St. Louis Park and Corner Door in Wayzata closed within the last one to two years. Wabi Sabi Shop, on the other hand, is the outlier that’s expanding.”

Innovation and Technology

From Adam Gale: What if the Luddites were right?

“With the AI and robotics revolution threatening so many jobs, perhaps it’s finally time to break our tech addiction.”

From Irving Wladawsky-Berger: The Emerging, Unpredictable Age of AI

“I was reminded of Keynes’ predictions while reading a number of recent articles on our emerging age of AI. After decades of unfulfilled promises and hype, AI seems to be reaching a tipping point. The necessary ingredients are finally coming together: lots and lots of data, with the volume of data pouring in expected to double every three years or so; advanced machine learning algorithms that extract insights and learn from all that data; drastically lowered technology costs for collecting, storing and analyzing these oceans of information; and access to an increasing variety of data-driven, cloud-based AI applications.”

From Daniel Newman: Data As A Service: The Big Opportunity For Business

“This revolutionary idea is changing the game in many ways, and I strongly believe business leaders should pay attention to this trend and start thinking about how DaaS could enhance their organizations.”

Women and the Workplace

From McKinsey: Time for a new gender-equality playbook

“The old one isn’t working. We need bolder leadership and more exacting execution.”

From the Judge Business School: Innovation and imagination: women entrepreneurs

“As International Women’s Day approaches we look at the joys and challenges of being a female entrepreneur – Cambridge MBA alumnae share their stories.”

From Tacy Byham: #LeadLikeAGirl: Ignite Your Impact as a Leader!

“As we objectively take a close look at women and leadership, it is not really a woman’s issue, it’s a business issue. There’s a lot of undisputed data that shows having diversity in your organizations and female leaders pays off. DDI and the Conference Board collaborated on the Global Leadership Forecast 2014|2015 (GLF), a survey of over 2,000 global organizations in all industries. We compared the top 20 percent high-performing organizations to the bottom 20 percent, and high-performing organizations have twice as many women leaders (37 percent vs. 19 percent)”

Work and Learning Now and in the Future

From Martha Laboissiere and Mona Mourshed: Closing the skills gap: Creating workforce-development programs that work for everyone

“In this article, we focus on a single subject: preparing people without college degrees for jobs with promising career paths. The need, for both business and society, is clear.”

From Google: The History and Future of Work with futurist Marina Gorbis

“Humanity’s working life only recently started revolving around large, centralized organizations. The future of work may look more like pre-industrialized work, in terms of how economic and social networks become more integrated again.”

From OpenWork: The Future of Work: Micro Jobs

“One of the major economic changes of the last few years has been the emergence of the ‘gig economy,’ the most extreme expression of which are services like TaskRabbit, where people hire themselves out to do simple tasks, one job at a time.”

More Leadership Posts from Wally Bock

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Beware the promise of easy success

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Book Review: Leadership BS by Jeffrey Pfeffer

My review of Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at A Time by Jeffrey Pfeffer.

Leaders and Strategies in Real Life: 2/28/17

Articles about real leaders and real companies in real life. This week it’s article about Sophi Tranchell, Bill Sandbrook, Cedric Bru, Ellen Latham, James Rhee, and Adena Friedman.

From the Independent Business Blogs: 3/1/17

Pointers to posts by Art Petty, Nina Simosko, Kevin Eikenberry, Lolly Daskal, and Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie.

Writing well gives you the edge in business and in life. If you want to get a book done, improve your blog posts, or make your web copy more productive, please check out my blog about business writing. My coaching calendar for authors and blog writers currently has time open. Please contact me if you’re interested.

The 347 tips in my ebook can help you Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time.